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  • Brian Marickmarick@mstdn.social
    Jul 31, 2026, 11:07 PM

    @deepmud Dawn did hoof trims (or something) on rodeo bulls. They would come in a group. They were feisty. They had big horns and knew how to use them.

    But she mainly worked on dairy cattle, which in the US don’t have horns. However, I remember when we were in the UK on our honeymoon we went to see a Celtic cross in the middle of a field. There was a big bull in the field. She marched straight on. I said, “Um… dear… bull?” She said, “Oh, he’s not mad” and marched on. I followed, and lived.

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Replies

  • Deep Muddeepmud@mas.to
    Aug 1, 2026, 12:23 AM

    @marick she's more brave than I am. Those critters moods can change pretty quickly. 😬

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  • Brian Marickmarick@mstdn.social
    Aug 1, 2026, 11:41 PM

    @deepmud I asked Dawn about it. She says that dangerous mood changes happen when the animal feels threatened. So the trick is to avoid making it feel threatened.

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  • Deep Muddeepmud@mas.to
    Aug 2, 2026, 12:08 AM

    @marick welllllll, yes...but the result of this mood change can get you put into orbit.

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  • Brian Marickmarick@mstdn.social
    Aug 2, 2026, 12:36 AM

    @deepmud Dawn says the key skill is understanding when the mood of the animal starts changing, so that you can prepare.

    She also informed me that llamas have killed people. An interesting bit is that they can charge a coyote, scoop it up with the head (they have really strong necks), fling it into the air, and then trample it when it hits the ground. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_ll (1/2)

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  • Brian Marickmarick@mstdn.social
    Aug 2, 2026, 12:36 AM

    Another fun fact is that, among the ruminants, llama milk is closest to human milk. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/878625 When she discovered that, I thought of a business producing high-end, high-price infant formula based on llama milk, but it turns out llamas are really hard to milk, even for baby llamas. (2/2)
    @deepmud

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  • Deep Muddeepmud@mas.to
    Aug 2, 2026, 12:59 AM

    @marick that's not the only good thing from llamas. Remember the antibodies they have? They may eventually help very sick people with things like covid

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  • Brian Marickmarick@mstdn.social
    Aug 2, 2026, 11:41 PM

    @deepmud I don’t recall anything about antibodies. (Meaning Dawn may not have mentioned it to me.) I do know they have elliptical blood cells, supposedly better for low-oxygen environments.

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  • Brian Marickmarick@mstdn.social
    Aug 3, 2026, 10:09 PM

    @deepmud Shocking that Dawn never told me about “nanobodies.” What other llama facts has she been hiding from me?

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  • Deep Muddeepmud@mas.to
    Aug 3, 2026, 10:46 PM

    @marick perhaps she doesn't know herself, and here is a grand opportunity to surprise her with your brilliance! 😃

    I read medical research a couple of hours a day and during COVID, probably more.

    I expect that right at this very moment, a drug company is trying to figure out how to patent those antibodies

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  • Brian Marickmarick@mstdn.social
    Aug 4, 2026, 3:41 AM

    @deepmud She doesn’t remember ever learning about those antibodies.

    Regarding hms.harvard.edu/news/no-llamas:

    "Llamas are famously hard to draw blood from because of the anatomy of their neck and thickness of their skin. And they don’t cooperate. Using yeast seems much more pleasant and efficient.”

    (Her attitude toward llamas seems to be llamas are to cows as cats are to dogs. Not horrible, but her favorite species are… her favorite species.)

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  • Deep Muddeepmud@mas.to
    Aug 4, 2026, 3:49 AM

    @marick fortunately, it appears that once some have been drawn from the unwilling llama, they can be reproduced outside of the critter.

    Everyone gets to have favorite animals. I like dogs. And sheep.

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  • Deep Muddeepmud@mas.to
    Aug 2, 2026, 1:00 AM

    @marick donkeys too. I raised sheep. When I left, my sister got donkeys. They HATE dogs.

    Of course it didn't help much that my sister also got a couple borzois. Really good at killing sheep. ☹️

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